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May 11, 2015

Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella

A recipe for Italian meatballs baked in tangy marinara and topped with gobs of buttery, gooey mozzarella.

My new favorite meatball meal is this one where the homemade Italian meatballs are baked in tangy marinara and topped with gobs of buttery, gooey mozzarella. I typically serve this with some sort of hearty green vegetable like roasted brussels sprouts, fried zucchini or zucchini noodles and some good crusty bread to soak up all that cheese and sauce.

I mentioned this before when I originally published my meatball recipe but I really, really don’t like the supermarket frozen meatballs. I hate the corky texture they have and they’re just so artificial tasting.

But they’re convenient. And it’s easy to be lured in to buying them.

So, here’s what I do! I make batches of my homemade meatballs, cook them up, plop them in a big o’ gallon-sized zip-top bag and throw them in the freezer. I can quickly make Swedish Meatballs, Crock Pot Meatball Subs, Spaghetti & Meatballs or this beauty any time I want.

Having homemade, truly delicious meatballs in your freezer is so incredibly handy AND scrumptious! When we suddenly have people pop over... as is OFTEN the case during baseball season because Husband loves to say awesome things like Hey, everybody can come over to our house after the game if you want!

Which isn't as scary as it sounds since A) I love our baseball family and B) I keep stuff like these meatballs stocked up in the icebox! Dump a jar of spaghetti sauce over them then top with cheese and BOOM I've got it covered!

Yield: 6 ServingsAuthor: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth

Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella

Ingredients:

Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella

20-24 Italian meatballs, cooked (recipe below)

1 24-oz. jar marinara sauce

8 ounces of mozzarella, shredded

Italian Meatballs

1 onion, grated

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 pounds ground beef (80/20 works best)

1/2 cup Italian dried bread crumbs

Instructions:

Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella:

Spoon half of the marinara sauce into a large oven-proof frying pan or 13x9 baking dish. Arrange meatballs in pan then cover with remaining sauce. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes at 375 degrees or until sauce is heated through. Remove pan from oven and top meatballs with mozzarella. Return to oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.

Serve with pasta or vegetables such as fried zucchini or roasted brussels sprouts (I love to serve hearty green veggies with marinara sauce – you totally don’t miss the pasta!).

Crumble ground beef into mixture and mix with your hands until just combined. Don’t “squeeze” the mixture with your hands – overworking the meat is what yields that “corky” texture.

Add bread crumbs and continue to mix the ingredients until everything is just combined and starts to stick together. Add more bread crumbs if necessary until the mixture holds together.

Shape into balls by hand or try this trick: Turn mixture out onto a cutting board or clean counter and shape into a rectangle. Pat her down good and keep working on it until it’s perfectly shaped. Using a sharp knife, cut the mixture into 20-24 squares. Roll each square into a ball. This way all the meatballs will be exactly the same size without having eyeball each one.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) and spray with cooking spray. Place meatballs onto baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

To get uniformed size meatballs use a clever little gadget called a meatball maker. Looks like scissors with cups on the end.Come in 2 sizes. The smaller one is for making little meatballs for wedding soup.

Hi Mandy. When i visit your site on my mobile device (iphone, safari browser) the site is hijacked and i'm reouted to the candycrush website and to the appstore, and your website completely disappears from my browser. You may need to get your site checked out as the same thing happened on my wife's phone.

Made these last night and they were the most tender, delicious meatballs....even before going into the sauce. This recipe is a hands down winner! Hubby says "best meatball he has had..." and that is a huge compliment! Even my picky little ones loved them. Yummy!

Hi there! While I'm not able to respond to every comment, I try hard to answer any questions that haven't been addressed in the post, recipe or in other comments. And though I may not respond to them all, I do read each and every comment and I LOVE to hear from you guys! Thanks, y'all! - Mandy